Island Home Country ‘Subversive Mourning’ Working with Aboriginal protocols in a documentary film about colonisation and growing up white in Tasmania A cine-essay and exegesis Doctorate of Creative Arts (DCA) Jennifer Thornley Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences University of Technology, Sydney 2010 Certificate of Authorship/Originality I certify that the work in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree nor has it been submitted as part of requirements for a degree except as fully acknowledged within the text. I also certify that the thesis has been written by me. Any help that I have received in my research work and the preparation of the thesis itself has been acknowledged. In addition, I certify that all information sources and literature used are indicated in the thesis. __________________________________ Signature of Student ii Acknowledgments I acknowledge and pay respects to the ancestors and elders, the traditional owners: palawa, cadigal, garigal, wurrunjerri, boonawrung, yorta yorta, pitjantjatjara whose countries I have lived in and filmed in – and whose community members and ancestors appear, or are spoken of, in this film and exegesis. A heart felt thank you to the many individuals who have so generously contributed their insight, guidance and support to this project during 2004-2010. Filmmaking is a collaborative endeavour and without their spirited involvement this project would not have been realised. I offer my sincerest thanks to all who appeared in the film – strangers, friends, family, and members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, in particular Julie Gough, Jim Everett, Aunty Phyllis Pitchford, who took the project on in good faith and also guided its protocols process; to my family and friends for unconditional support, especially Stephen Ginsborg, Lette Ginsborg, Jan Thornley, Carole Walter, Jacinta Isaacs, Leigh Archer, Merle Archer, Moni Lai Storz, Rinki Bhattacharya and PennyX Saxon; to the Island Home Country production and post- production team for staying the course with such enthusiasm and professionalism – especially Karen Pearlman, Andrew Corsi, Sharon Jakovsky and Megan McMurchy; thanks to Jessie Ginsborg-Newling for painting the ‘quiet country’ maps; a special thanks to Lyndall Ryan for her insights, Martha Ansara for comments on the film edit, and to Vicki Grieves for lively discussions around history and Indigenous philosophy. To the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UTS – thanks to my supervisors, especially my principal supervisor Sarah Gibson who has truly held a space for this project; to alternate supervisors Katrina Schlunke for critical insights and Heather Goodall for grounded advice; to Media Arts and Production (MAP) and IT staff for their intellectual contribution, technical guidance and support, with a very special thanks to Toula Anastas, the film’s ‘midwife’ in so many ways; thanks to Sharon Etter and Simon Prowse for always being there; thank you to my colleagues in MO8, M07, MAP and my documentary students – for dialogue, peer support and friendship; to UTS library staff for kindness and texts. Thanks to my proof-reader Guenter Plum and Jo Ellis for word processing assistance. A special thanks to Judy Spielman for assisting my process of ‘remembering, repeating and working through’. iii Table of Contents Island Home Country ....................................................................................................... i Certificate of Authorship/Originality ........................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................. v Abstract .......................................................................................................................... vi On Language and Speaking Positions ....................................................................... viii Chapter 1 – Introduction ................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 2 – Praxis ......................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 3 – Amnesia ..................................................................................................... 30 Chapter 4 – Possession .................................................................................................. 43 Chapter 5 – Memory ..................................................................................................... 58 Chapter 6 – Mourning .................................................................................................. 79 Chapter 7 – Encounter .................................................................................................. 99 Chapter 8 – Reckoning ............................................................................................... 118 References .................................................................................................................... 132 Appendices ................................................................................................................... 147 iv List of Figures Figure 1: Island Home Country collage, Ali Chehelnabi, Tim Baines 2008………..…i Figure 2: We grew up behind a hedge keeping history out, Tasmania 1952 ................. 9 Figure 3: I am white, born on a stolen island .............................................................. 14 Figure 4: My maternal family on meenamatta country, Deddington, Tas. 1910 ......... 18 Figure 5: Empire Day, Invermay, Launceston, Tasmania 1933 .................................. 33 Figure 6: Death, life’s quiet companion, Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania 1996...39 Figure 7: Tribal boundaries of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people, map, Jessie Ginsborg-Newling 2008 ............................................................................... 46 Figure 8: Mother’s Nest, PennyX Saxon 2006 ............................................................ 65 Figure 9: Emma, Truganini, Flora and Wapperty, Oyster Cove, Francis R Nixon, 1858, Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania .................................................................................................. 68 Figure 10: I found one trace, Invermay, Launceston 1952 ............................................ 71 Figure 11: Tasmanian Aborigines at Oyster Cove Station, Fanny Benbow c1900 Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania ....... 74 Figure 12: Anna Freud’s Loom, Freud Museum London, c1985 .................................. 80 Figure 13: I am proud, I am strong, Aunty Phyllis Pitchford nunarng 2007 ................ 88 Figure 14: The Hands of White Man’s Destruction, PennyX Saxon 2006 .................. 109 Figure 15: The Whispering Sands, Ebb Tide, Julie Gough 1998 ................................. 112 Figure 16: Broken Heart, Ricky Maynard 2005 .......................................................... 116 Figure 17: Borderline, Stephen Ginsborg 2007 ........................................................... 119 Figure 18: Transmitting Device, Julie Gough 2005 ..................................................... 129 Figure 19: What is an Aborigine, Vernon Ah Kee 2008 ............................................. 130 v Abstract In this doctorate, Island Home Country, a documentary film and exegesis, I reflect on growing up in a white settler-invader family in Tasmania in the late 1940s-1950s oblivious to any Tasmanian Aboriginal culture or history on the island. The working method of the film was initially based on Freud’s notion of ‘the work of mourning’ as a way of working through repressed history. However the project’s engagement in a six-year protocols process with Tasmanian Aboriginal community members influenced this research paradigm. It triggered a ‘meditation on discomfort’, involving a turn towards critical race and whiteness studies, decolonising methodologies and a consideration of white privilege and ways to challenge it. This exegesis seeks to articulate the film’s textual strategies alongside theoretical and political issues that surfaced while making the film, in particular the impact of protocols, the ethics and responsibilities they entail and their repercussions into the text of the film and the project’s research paradigm. The film is in the documentary essay mode. My aim has been to work in an affective and performative register with image, poetry, sound and music to try and penetrate amnesia and to think and see ‘beyond the colonial construct’. The process of making a film in consultation with Tasmanian Aboriginal community members, as well as my own family is examined, particularly the subject position of being a white person producing a work amidst the complex borderlines of 21st century colonial-post-colonising Tasmania. The six chapters of the exegesis – Amnesia, Possession, Memory, Mourning, Encounter and Reckoning follow the chapters of the film, opening out the ebb and flow of protocols process for discussion. This exegesis analyses the film’s attempt to ‘work through’ the historical trauma of colonisation at both an individual and community level, examining the film’s intention to reckon with the ghosts of